He works on the history of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia and beyond, and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specializes in medieval Greek literature and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009).

Peter often writes for the international press, including The New York Times,Financial Times Guardian, and has a regular column in the London Evening Standard. He has been profiled in China Daily, China's largest English language newspaper and in Good Times (Pakistan).

Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph's History Book of the Year 2015. it went to Number One in the Sunday Times Non-Fiction charts, remaining in the Top 10 for nine months in a row, as well as being #1 in China, India, the UAE, Ireland and many other countries around the world. Peter has been described in The New Statesman as 'the history rock star du jour'.

In December 2018, The Silk Roads was chosen as one of the 25 most influential books translated into Chinese in the last 40 years, alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby.

Since 2016, Peter's Songlines audio channel in which he has chosen his favourite pieces of world music has been part of British Airways's In-Flight Entertainment system.

In 2018, The Silk Roads was chosen as part of the Government of Pakistan's Read to Lead program to encourage literacy in the country.

Peter's book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, is an international bestseller, described by William Dalrymple as a 'historical epic of dazzling range, ambition and achievement' (Observer)

Daily Telegraph History Book of the Year 2015The Times, Number One Non-Fiction BestsellerSunday Times, Number One Non-Fiction BestsellerEvening Standard, Number One Bestseller

'Not only the most important history book for years, but the most important for decades' (Berliner Zeitung)

'Magnificent' (Prospect)

'Breathtaking' (Foreign Policy)

'Monumental…prodigious…astonishing. Frankopan is an exhilarating companion for the journey along the routes which conveyed silk, slaves, ideas, religion, and disease, and around which today may hang the destiny of the world’ (Vanity Fair)

'Epic study - a book of dazzling range and ambition' (New Statesman)

'Brilliant threads...a history of the world that shunts the centre of gravity eastward' (The Economist)

'Beautifully constructed, a terrific and exhilarating read and a new perspective on world history (History Today)

'Riveting' (Sunday Telegraph)

'A Herodotus for the 21st Century' (Irish Left Review)

'Unputdownable' (L'Orient Littéraire)

'Enticing, sometimes enchanting' (Sydney Morning Herald)

'Breathtaking' (New Zealand Herald)

'Perfect pool-side reading' (TLS)

'Formidable and fascinating' (The Times)

'Completely addictive' (Dagbladet)

'Superb' (The Australian)

'Essential in shifting Eurocentric views – and is also a thumping good read' (Sunday Times, South Africa)

'A dazzling piece of historical writing' (South China Morning Post)

'Hugely ambitious...jam-packed with stories' (China Daily)

'An instant classic' (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

'A brave, subtly personal project of inspiriting ambition and epic scope, full of unexpected connections.' (New York Review of Books)